Track and field thinks it’s one thing. It’s actually something else. The disconnect is stark

Track and field thinks it’s one thing. It’s actually something else. The disconnect is stark

Track and field has an existential challenge. What the sport thinks it is, and what it actually is, are two different things. Two very different things.

There is a stark disconnect between the romantic idealism that many of its most important international leaders hold for the sport and what track and field realistically can be in the modern landscape, particularly in the United States.

Those of a certain age — this means the sport’s base, the fans it already has — tend to think of track and field as the most elemental exhibition of grace, power and, especially, speed. For them, it is the most beautiful manifestation of the potential of humankind, a primal thing that everyone should obviously fall in love and be in love with.

The disconnect is elemental. Why should young people in our 21st century fall in love with a sport that requires dozens it not more than 100 hours of viewing over the span of 10 days? Additionally, outside of the worlds, you need half a dozen subscriptions to watch everything. Impossible. Dude, come on.

In which the Cleary family of four goes to Eugene for vacay at the Worlds

In which the Cleary family of four goes to Eugene for vacay at the Worlds

EUGENE, Oregon — Greg Cleary ran track in college at San Jose State. Wife Karmela is happy to accompany Greg to meets. They both think it’s great stuff.

Sons Anthony, 16, and Marco, 14? Not so much. There were 272 NFL games in the 2021 season. Marco watched 230. How many track meets did Marco watch? Zero.

For their summer vacation, Greg and Karmela decided it would be a great idea to bring the boys, and their 3-year-old dog, Justice, a black-and-white Mi-Ki, to Eugene, for the full run of the 2022 world track and field championships. As the meet wraps up Sunday, this one family’s story underscores the many challenges inherent in the key goal of these championships: trying to grow the sport — with an eye toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics — in and around the 50 states.

Track and field makes it so hard on itself. Why, why, why?

Track and field makes it so hard on itself. Why, why, why?

EUGENE, Oregon — On Sunday, the United States won nine medals, four of them gold, at the world track and field championships.

As track nerds knew and organizers helpfully reminded, this was statistically the greatest single-day haul by any nation in the nearly 40-year history of the championships.

On August 31, 1991, the Soviet Union won eight. The previous American best had been seven, on August 10, 1983. Kenya won seven medals on August 27, 2011. There have been 14 times a nation has won six.

The question is: does this nine/four performance move the needle when it comes to growing track and field in the United States? Nine and four are great, no question. But unless this meet kickstarts the sport, with an eye toward the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, then nine and four are just — nine and four. Numbers. Like those in that third paragraph. Stats. For freaks and nerds. Who are already on the I-love-track train.

The real doping outrage: American hypocrisy and the U.S. double standard

The real doping outrage: American hypocrisy and the U.S. double standard

EUGENE, Oregon — For the past five years, Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono has been one of the world’s top marathoners.

In 2019, he won the Boston Marathon. Again: the Boston Marathon. Is there anything more symbolic of American distance running than Boston, and #BostonStrong? That’s not a rhetorical question. Answer: no. That year, Cherono won the Chicago Marathon, too.

In 2021, Cherono finished fourth in the Tokyo Olympic marathon. Last December, he won the marathon in Valencia, Spain. This past April, he finished second in Boston. His personal best, 2:03:04, is the eighth-fastest of all time.

So where is the outrage, especially from all those, especially in the United States, who went all but berserk this past February over the Russians at the Beijing Winter Games, now that the 33-year-od Cherono has been provisionally suspended for the exact same substance that then-15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva got tagged for — and under eerily similar circumstances?

Script writer's dream for U.S. track: Fred Kerley, yessir, leads 1-2-3 USA sweep in men's 100

Script writer's dream for U.S. track: Fred Kerley, yessir, leads 1-2-3 USA sweep in men's 100

EUGENE, Oregon — Fred Kerley has an active Twitter account. In it, he explains why he’s very good at running fast.

I love what I do, he says. That’s why, he goes on, I’m confident in everything I do.

To know Kerley is to understand, indeed appreciate, that he is not obnoxiously confident. He is from small-town central Texas, and he has an understated humility. “Track and field has changed my life, coming from where I come from,” he said late Saturday. “Every day I get to run track, it’s a blessing.” All the same, no one gets to be best at the 100 meters, the most alpha of alpha male disciplines, without considerable self-esteem. In that Twitter account, in which he lets the public in, at least a little, into bits and pieces of the real him, Kerley returns time and again to the notion that greatness, by implication, his, cannot be denied.

Underway at Spaceship Hayward, and ... oh, we're in Eugene

Underway at Spaceship Hayward, and ... oh, we're in Eugene

EUGENE, Oregon — The first world track and field championships to take place in the United States got underway Friday at Spaceship Hayward Field with three distinct threads. The question is which of the three will be the most memorable, will have the longest-lasting effect, when this show comes to its end in 10 days.

One, the weather is great (not baking at 110 Fahrenheit, like it was at the U.S. Trials last summer) but, as the kids would say, and all Olympic sports but especially track and field are trying to reach young people in the language they speak, Eugene does not have, not even remotely, BDE. Surprise! Not. Eugene is a remote college town and thus unsuitable for an event of this level. Bluntly, and as the world is now discovering, perhaps to its considerable dismay, it is Nowheresville, USA.

Two, athletes from a lot of different countries are having trouble getting to Eugene. To be precise, getting into the United States. Surprise! Not. This is the result of a variety of different factors. Then, when they get here, they’re housed in crummy college dorms. While the American team is in a hotel. All of this will resonate badly, and for a long time, elsewhere around the around. Guaranteed.

Three, the athletic performances surely will be world-class. What will the attendance figures be? Much more critically, the TV numbers? World Athletics and USA Track & Field are seeking to use this meet as a springboard to revive interest in the sport across the United States with an eye toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Will it? Can it?

Four case studies: athlete mental health

Four case studies: athlete mental health

Athlete mental health is a real thing. To be clear, no one is suggesting otherwise.

It’s intriguing to explore the intersection in recent days of four separate episodes that bear on this fascinating topic.

Any therapist will tell you that matters of mental health are subjective. That is, they’re in the headspace of the person who’s dealing with them. All the same, that person — for purposes of this discussion, an athlete, and more specifically, a professional athlete — lives and works among us. That means there’s some significant measure of objective if not common-sense reality.

The 800 free, and how good can best-ever Katie Ledecky be? Still trying to be better

BUDAPEST — Sports is perhaps the last refuge of unscripted reality shows, so it would be rude and disrespectful to declare that Katie Ledecky had the women’s 800 freestyle won before the beep went off Friday night here at the 19th FINA world championships.

But, you know, come on.

If we’re being honest, a legit contender for the best show in sports is to see how good Katie Ledecky can be. Still. Ten years after she burst onto the scene, winning the 800 free as a 15-year-old at the London Games in 2012.

“I made it a goal to not be a one-hit-wonder, and here we are,” she said.

Halfway through Budapest 2022: Dressel goes home and other murmurs

Halfway through Budapest 2022: Dressel goes home and other murmurs

BUDAPEST — As Yogi Berra once famously said, it ain’t over til it’s over, and while the swimming part of these 19th FINA championships is just now half over, and for a great chunk of the world these championships perhaps have an are-they-really-happening vibe, up close there are threads that clearly deserve pulling:

— Caeleb Dressel, the top American guy, went home abruptly. USA Swimming wouldn’t say what’s wrong, citing medical privacy laws.

Let’s deconstruct.